Hector A. Ruiz

After the -partly personal preference- disappointing finale of season one for the reasons mentioned on my previous review, my immediate thought was, “How will the writers make season two interesting?” Well, they came up with two ideas: a good idea somewhat properly executed, and a good idea poorly executed. This review will contain spoilers.

The former idea of course refers to the plot of having the “Bay Harbor Butcher” killing’s surface, leading Dexter to be the subject of a major investigation by both the Miami Police Department and the F.B.I., with Sgt. Doakes also carrying his own. I felt that the writers felt they got lucky the series was renewed for a second season, but would not be able to make it a third, so it was probably time to end it with Dexter getting caught.

While the concept is interesting, I think that Dexter was able to escape the investigation way too easily. In one particular climatic scene in which undeniable evidence that Dexter is the Bay Harbor Butcher is about to be discovered by the task force leading the investigation in the building, Dexter resorts to triggering the building’s fire alarm as a means to have everyone evacuate the building, so he can delete the evidence from the computer. What happened next was the building’s personnel immediately got up from their desks and calmly started walking towards the building’s exits. When I saw this happening, I bursted out uncontrollably laughing out loud of the unrealistic portrayal of the situation, because throughout my entire professional career and personal life, I have never seen anybody react that way upon hearing a fire alarm. In my experience, people wait a few minutes, wander aimlessly around for more minutes, until eventually someone calmly says “Hey, this is a fire drill, we need to exit the building“. Even on one occasion when then was a fire in my building, the reaction by everyone was still the same, with the “fire drill” part removed. I am guessing that under a critical life threatening circumstances, people would probably exit quicker. Anyway, Dexter triggered the alarm, everyone leaves in like two seconds, and he is able to erase the incriminating evidence, without anyone even noticing that the evidence was missing after they come back into the building.

The latter good idea poorly executed was the concept of Dexter attending a recovery group, meaning the whole Lyla plot. The actress was ok-ish, but the character was unrealistic. Dexter falling for her also, and allowing her to outsmart him makes the audience think that it was either very unrealistic or ended up making Dexter look too dumb. However, worse than Lyla’s plot, the writers also came up with one of the worst -if not the worst- ideas they could: killing Doakes.

If I was in charge of the writing of this series, I would have -as I mentioned in my previous entry- left Brian alive, roaming in the shadows, showing up on random episodes as a constant threat to Dexter, and… I would have also kept Doakes alive, disgraced from the police force, on the run from the authorities, and also trying to disproove his guilt to reveal Dexter’s.

In summary, season two had a lot of potential, but ended up being a let down. Stay tuned for the next one!

HR